Joe Wilkinson's Early Years
I was born in Pampa, Texas in the Grey County Hospital on September 1, 1941 at a very young age (tee hee). My birth name is Joseph Earl Wilkinson, named for a great uncle of the same name. The only other person named partly Earl was my Uncle Earl, full name Aubrey Earl Wilkinson, a fact that will have some significance in (Great) uncle Earl’s will. He left me $1,000, but only $500 for my Uncle Earl. Some more family trivia – My uncle Aubrey Earl was also named after my great uncle Aubry (Earl’s brother). Both are siblings of my grandpa (John) Brice Wilkinson, who had about six other siblings. My father John (Brice) Wilkinson was named after his father. My father had four siblings, all male: George, Bob, Watt, and the aformentioned Earl. Proceeding with the main theme: I grew up on various farms, except for my early years, which were spent in Irving and Brownsville. My earliest memories are from a farm outside Decatur. We had a goat named Billy. He and I had a relationship. My mother told me that she looked out of the kitchen window one day and saw me running around the car at warp speed with Billy in close pursuit. I jumped in the car to escape. Mom was laughing too hard to help me. This event might have been the birth of the resilience that I seem, dysfunctionally, to have in large measure. A few years later, we moved to an old house about five miles west of Graham (Texas, where all of the events occurred, until I moved to New Mexico). My first memories are watching Mom teaching my brother John to read. I watched for hours, but the books were upside-down, so I learned to read that way. I learned that I could also read right side up. When I started school, I could read a sixth grade reader, which caused quite a quandary for the principal, so she started me in the second grade. That was a disaster, as I knew nothing about all the other stuff first graders learn, especially arithmetic. Mom taught me arithmetic, so by the second test, I was OK. The other memory I have of that time was my father building a dairy barn out of cinder blocks, but it failed inspection because it didn’t have toilet facilities within x feet of the barn. So Daddy built an outhouse within that limit. He made jokes about building an outhouse for the cows, because no people would ever use it. He was right in that prediction. Nobody used it, but the barn passed inspection. After milking cows for a few years, Daddy got a job as police chief in Pampa, s closed the dairy business and moved to Pampa. I thought I was out of the dairy business forever, but guess what? Daddy built another dairy barn. Before the mortar was dry, it quit raining for seven years, and we went broke. We sold the herd at auction and lost our ass. The only animal that made money was the palomino Shetland pony that I owned, and Daddy insisted that I take the money. I refused, in part because Daddy had bought feed for the horse and spent more than the profit from the sale. So Daddy quit the police chief job and went to work managing a local laundry for money. I worked in the laundry after school for a few months, shaking out pillow cases to make them ready for the iron. It was the most boring job I ever had, so I quit. I don’t remember what I did then. After milking cows for a few years, Daddy got a job as police chief in Pampa, s closed the dairy business and moved to Pampa. I thought I was out of the dairy business forever, but guess what? Daddy built another dairy barn. Before the mortar was dry, it quit raining for seven years, and we went broke. We sold the herd at auction and lost our ass. The only animal that made money was the palomino Shetland pony that I owned, and Daddy insisted that I take the money. I refused, in part because Daddy had bought feed for the horse and spent more than the profit from the sale. So Daddy quit the police chief job and went to work managing a local laundry for money. I worked in the laundry after school for a few months, shaking out pillow cases to make them ready for the iron. It was the most boring job I ever had, so I quit. I don’t remember what I did then.